Celestron 52238 Mini Mak 70mm Angled Spotting Scope – Maksutov Spotting Scope – Great for Long Range Viewing – 25–75x Zoom Eyepiece – Multi-Coated Optics – Rubber Armored – Tabletop Tripod Included

Excellent starter scope. I like it due to the portability and ease of use. Great views of the moon. Waiting for Saturn and Jupiter!! Magnification at 75x is a little blurry but still gives amazing views of the moon. 1.25 inch eyepiece adapter with a 32mm eyepiece gives super sharp views. Also there is the tripod. This is average but better to have it as part of the bundle.

It's often quoted that the best telescope for you is the one you'll use the most, and out of the four I currently own this has definitely seen the most mounted time. It's a great size and weight, and even after I superglued a red-dot finder base to the exterior it still fits in the supplied case and will stuff into a rucksack with plenty of room to spare. The tripod is a bit flimsy but still good for the bundled kind; the slow motion controls in particular are a nice addition in this price bracket. The view will wobble a lot at the high magnification end if you extend the pier, but if you can use it without doing so it's actually fairly sturdy.Another nice feature for the price is the ability to use any 1.25' eyepiece via the adaptor. The included zoom eyepiece is pretty decent, though the picture dims and softens significantly at 75x. It doesn't render it unuseable - the moon in particular doesn't suffer, in fact it can actually make it easier to view if it is bright - but the limitations of the scope's f/ration and apeture do kick in. Between 25 - 50x the views are crisp, bright and contrasty and with only a little colour fringeing on my copy, but your mileage may vary (the factory QC of scopes in this range is notoriously iffy, and if you get a duff one you should attempt at least one return to see if the result improve significantly with another go). Saturn and Jupiter's sweet spot for me was around 50 - 60x; expect to be able to see Saturn's rings and make out some basic cloud bands on Jupiter, as well as the Galilean moons. You will be able to see a handful of deep-sky objects with this telescope, but not in any great colour or detail; the Orion Nebula and Andromeda galaxy will be grey smudges, but again, there are limits at this size and focal ratio. It's a planetary telescope by design, and in those areas it performs admirably for what you pay.I've had mine about nine months now, and loan to friends to introduce them to astronomy. It's an easy to use, easy to store, fun tool that will give you hours of pleasing views on the moon and solar system targets, as well as colourful bright-stars, and the occasional view of something more cosmic. For daytime it's great for whipping out and getting a look at something interesting that's visiting the garden. Highly recommended.

This is just brilliant. Very well constructed, really good optics as usual from Celestron. Excellent for moon observation. Can go slightly out of focus at x75 zoom and the table top tri-pod is a bit naff but used with a camera tri-pod it is brilliant. Also small enough to put in a bag for when you go on holiday or for a day out.

I downgraded from an old 4.5 inch reflector telescope as it has become the proverbial coat rack - it's just heavy for spontaneous use, especially with the British weather. This scope can be easily grabbed with one hand and taken onto my balcony table for a quick bit of bird watching (I am monitoring some city falcons). The image is clear at x25 but does dim at x75 with apparent loss of clarity, and it does require refocussing upon zooming. At x75 the image is not as sharp. But the zoom feature is convenient; the mount an intuitive and simple alt/azm (left-right and up-down); the image is not reversed or upsidedown - all of this pluses over areflector scope.For star-gazing though there is a shortcoming - there is no finderscope so it can take a few moments to have it point, say, at a bright planet, even at tle lowest magnification of x25. Googling around, I found a workaround : put an empty biro into the grove on the casing and fasten with a rubber band, but it is still not adequate e.g. for binary stars. I ended up purchasing a red-dot finder and fastening with rubber bands and blue-tack and now it is perfiectly good for lunar and planetory viewing. The moon's crators are clearly visible, Saturn's rings visible, albeit its a small disk in the eyepiece, and I managed to split the smaller of the horse-and-rider binary star. The zoom eyepiece does not support standard filters so using it to look at a full moon is uncomfortable so you may want to stick your own 1.25 eyepiece in with filter.I find the tripod just about useable; I tend to push it approximately in place (where it wobbles quite a bit) then use the fine-tune alt/azm knobs.For photographing birds I purchased a Seben camera adaptor to take pictures using a compact camera. This does not work well because the scope is so light and the adaptor, being solid metal, is too heavy such that the scope tilts back (or I risk overtightening the knobs on the tripod). I then purchaed a celestron T-ring and DSLR adapter for my Nikon D50. This worked, and especially it achieved focus (which is a known problem with other telescopes), but it is very hard to get focus (due to focus seeming to have some mechanical lag plus image on the DSLR's focussing screen looks strangely mottled). It was more practical to hold a compact to the eyepiece.Overall I'm happy because of the convenience of grabbing it now and again (and several times in an evening), but finderscope would have been nice. Do expect some degree of fuzziness at higher magnifications (above x30). In hindsight I think a Celestron Uitima may have been a better choice for me (80mm or better) as it has a sighting tube and thread for a DSLR; but I do enjoy using this and this is the final proof.

This scope is everything that I expected. It feels robust and is extremely easy to use - just two controls for focus and magnification - and it is small and very light and fits easily in a rucksack. It is a massive improvement on binoculars in terms of image quality.For stargazing this is a good choice if you live in a flat and need to take your scope somewhere dark and away from buildings before using it. It doesn't have the magnification of the big scopes but it is much more convenient.

Very hard to get an image you can actually see.....would not buy this at allGet a pair of binoculars instead

Got for a friend and it appears to be as good as it says. Some reviews said that the tripod is not good but from what I have seen it is very stable for a little tripod. My friend has used it lots and is very happy with all it does. I am sure that more expensive scopes may be amazing but from the feedback i have been given this is an excellent scope in this price range.

No venía el adaptador de ocular de 1.25 mm, pero la calidad de las imágenes es buena

This scope will for sure add more range to your organic optics. The moon viewed from this is clear and bright. Birds and wildlife can be view clearly upto a 1000 meters. It does get dim at 75x under low light conditions. I find 60 - 65x is a more usable magnification on it. Since the objective lens on this is 70mm, you may choose to upgrade the eye piece and go upto 140x magnification, not sure of the image quality though. It ships with a DSLR mounting attachment.I did not use the stock tripod, instead I got a DVR tripod. Please bear in mind, in high magnification and windy conditions, there will be quite a bit of vibration, so choose tripods that allow for hanging weight for stabilization.The unit shipped to me has some dust specs on the mirror, so far they have not caused any issue. Stock soft case is not adequate for long distance travel, I had to build a custom hard case for this purpose. The scope itself is built sturdy.Overall I'd say this was a good purchase.

Acquistando uno spektive per meno di 140€ non mi aspettavo un prodotto all'altezza di uno da due o tremila euro, l'ho acquistato principalmente per l'osservazione della fauna selvatica e per la valutazione dei colpi al poligono.Non sono ancora riuscito ad utilizarlo per l'ultimo scopo ma per il resto si è dimostrato un ottimo prodotto, chiaramente portato a 75 ingrandimenti perde di luminosità e anche la definizione ne risente ma nel corso delle prove che ho fatto sono riuscito a leggere un cartello di divieto di caccia a poco meno di 300 metri, le lettere non erano chiarissime ma in parte era dovuto al tremolio dell'aria per il caldo che si faceva sentire anche a ingrandimenti minori.L'unico neo riscontrato finora è probabilmente dato dall'uso degli occhiali, anche portandoli a contatto dell'anello di gomma dopo averlo ripiegato se ci si disallinea anche di poco dall'oculare si vede un fastidioso alone ai margini dell'immagine.Il cavalletto in dotazione è minimale e bisogna adattarsi a non toccare il cannocchiale per non farlo tremolare, bisogna tener conto che per l'osservazione della fauna è assolutamente necessrio un cavalletto di ottima qualità, quello fornito va bene al massimo se ci si mette a fare osservazioni da sdraiati e tenendo il tutto con le mani.L'acquisto vale tranquillamente il prezzo pagato, se paragonato al mio vecchio cannocchiale "made in japan" pagato circa il doppio è un miglioramento notevole, è più leggero e a parità di ingrandimenti la risoluzione è decisamente migliore.

Utilisation pour le tir sportif et l'observation dans la nature : optique lumineuse, claire et nette. Les réglages sont assez précis et la finition plutôt bonne.Seul bémol, le support qui bouge à la moindre vibration et qui a du mal à stabiliser la longue vue qui pèse un peu - un pet de lapin suffit pour la faire bouger donc j'ai investi dans un mini trépied Rollei (en vente sur le site) et là c'est top (c'est un investissement mais faut savoir ce qu'on veut...).Je vous conseille donc la longue-vue sans hésiter, en revanche le support, un peu quincaille, est à remplacer si vous aimez avoir une image stable et ne pas être obligé à modifier constamment votre visée.

Ante todo, el embalaje proporcionado por Amazon, ha sido perfecto.El telescopio se ve robusto y con buena claridad y nitidez en la imagen.Buscaba un telescopio con estas características para avistamiento de aves y además para iniciarme en el digiscoping. Venía la piecita para sustituir por el visor y ahí acoplar la cámara con el tubo y anilllo T (que hay que comprar aparte).Lo he probado sólo un día y la verdad es que me ha sorprendido gratamente. Actualizaré mi comentario cuando lo pruebe en otro tipo de escenario